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Blashfield’s 

ft 

“Washington Surrendering 
His Commission” 


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Issued by 

The Municipal Art Society 


of Baltimore 



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INDEX 

PAGES 

I Address of Theodore Marburg, 9-22 

II Letter of Edwin Howland 
Blashfield Describing the 
Decoration,.25-27 

III Response of Hon. Thomas G. 

Hayes, Mayor of Baltimore, 31-33 





JN October, 1899, the Municipal Art 
Society of Baltimore offered the city 
five thousand dollars to provide a mural 
decoration for the courthouse on condi¬ 
tion that the city expend ten thousand 
dollars for two similar decorations. This 
offer was accepted in 1901. 

The Municipal Art Society and the 
Courthouse Commission, which latter body 
was charged with the expenditure of the 
money appropriated by the city, thereupon 
appointed the following joint committee 
to procure the decorations: Theodore 
Marburg, John N. Steele, J. B. Noel 
Wyatt, Henry D. Harlan, Ferdinand C. 
Latrobe and Frank N. Hoen. 

The first decoration completed was Cal¬ 
vert’s Treaty With the Indians, painted 
by C. Y. Turner, and placed in the lobby 
of the criminal court. 

The following pages record the proceed¬ 
ings attending the unveiling of the deco¬ 
ration in the court of common pleas 
February 9, 1903, the second decoration 
completed. 










Ht>t>ress of 


Gbeobore flDarburg 






* J^HE decoration about to be unveiled 
is but a feature added to the beauty 
and dignity of a fine building. Only 
because the architects had in mind just 
such noble adornment as this, is it now 
possible for us to place it here. The 
painter works to disadvantage unless the 
architect has consciously provided oppor¬ 
tunity for him. Such opportunity is not 
lacking for making the Baltimore court¬ 
house one of the noted buildings of the 
world. We start with pure and beauti¬ 
ful lines of architecture, and find within 
the courthouse spaces for a series of deco¬ 
rations which it might well take many 
years to provide. Blashfield brings his 
tribute in these words: “The dignified 
restraint shown in the interior architecture 
of the courthouse is particularly helpful 
and even inspiring to a mural painter, 
who feels that such handsome rooms 
demand very serious decorative treat¬ 
ment.” 

Art is one of the mediums of expression 
for the aspirations of a people, and some 
of the great monuments of art are regarded 
today as among the most notable achieve- 


9 


ments of a famous epoch or race. An in¬ 
ferior people has seldom produced a 
superior work of art. There seems to 
have been required a stimulus to the na¬ 
tional pulse, some achievement indicating 
purpose in a people, before they produced 
anything notable in the field of art. We 
each follow our separate walk in life and 
are inclined to think that our ideas and 
acts are all our own. The history of the 
great art creations, equally with perform¬ 
ance in other directions, proves that we are 
but factors, after all, helping to express a 
great municipal, national or world purpose. 

Now, what is it we emphasize in the 
achievements of a people ? When we read 
the story of Athens it is not so much the 
quantity of silver taken from her mines, 
nor her commerce with Phoenicia and 
with her own colonies, which we dwell 
upon, though the material wealth they 
provided paved the way for her later 
achievements. Her real performance of 
lasting value was her glowing heroism and 
what she contributed to philosophy, poli¬ 
tics and art. The names of her leading 
thinkers are as familiar after the lapse of 
two thousand years as the names of our 
contemporaries. We travel many miles 
to see her temples and the beautiful mar¬ 


io 


bles which came from the hand of Phidias 
and of Praxiteles. Just so with the city 
states of a later age. The trade of Florence 
with the Levant, together with that of 
neighbor cities, was an important factor in 
bringing about the revival of letters and the 
general awakening of Europe. But these 
are not the things we connect today with 
the name of Florence. The mention of 
her name brings to our minds the fiery 
genius of her great priest Savonarola, who 
met a painful martyrdom as courageously 
as he had met the ordinary trials of life. It 
brings before us a Dante, who stamped his 
personality upon the literature of Europe; 
a Benvenuto Cellini, who wrought with 
such exquisite taste the ornaments and the 
smaller objects of art that are treasured 
today by our museums. It brings up the 
group of great Florentine painters and the 
heroic stature of a Michael Angelo who 
felt the kinship of painting, sculpture, 
architecture and literature, and whose 
genius was broad enough to span them all. 

Our starting point, when we try to give 
to our children a conception of our own 
early history, is ever the spirit of resistance 
to oppression that brought the Pilgrims 
across the stormy Atlantic in a craft such 
as few passengers would today risk their 


lives in. When we come to our own State, 
that which we try to emphasize in her early 
history is her religious tolerance, and later 
the part her citizens took in fulfilling their 
duty as men in the Continental Army and 
the Continental Congress, and in the con¬ 
vention which evolved from a bitter ex¬ 
perience our wise federal constitution. 
We remember with satisfaction that within 
our borders occurred the event of univer¬ 
sal significance portrayed in this decora¬ 
tion. 

Posterity properly estimates our per¬ 
formances according to the influence they 
have had in directing the endeavors of men 
toward right-thinking and right-living. 

Our phenomenal growth in industry and 
agriculture, made possible largely by trans¬ 
portation, is the striking fact of the last 
century, and its advantages to men and to 
civilization cannot be over-estimated. But 
was not this very progress determined by 
mental forces? Would we occupy the po¬ 
sition we occupy today had we remained 
a dependency of England? Would we 
have made such progress had our progeni¬ 
tors failed to establish a form of govern¬ 
ment which made possible the workings 
of a broad democratic spirit, the spirit 
which has brought the best to the top, and 


12 


led men to endeavor, so that our land 
attracted from Europe thousands who felt 
the need of opportunity? The framers of 
our constitution and the men who rocked 
the cradle of the new nation, our first law¬ 
makers, administrators and judges, had a 
consciousness of this, and wrought as few 
statesmen had ever wrought before. 

Advance of industry should be valued 
principally because it sets free the activities 
of men for pursuits other than those of 
mere sustenance. 

Baltimore is a great manufacturing and 
trading centre today, but those of you who 
have traveled much must have felt some 
little shock at the small knowledge of our 
city possessed by the outside world. 
Outside the great seaports abroad, Balti¬ 
more is known best as the home of the 
Johns Hopkins University and the Johns 
Hopkins Hospital. Men who did not 
know of us before know of us now. It 
is the things born of the mind, things 
which increase the spiritual stature of men, 
that excite the admiration of the contem¬ 
porary world and that live in history. 

How many travelers are drawn to Milan 
by the faded picture on the moldering 
walls of a barnlike room ? Beauty of color 
no longer exists and the chipping of the 




surface has left the picture indistinct; but 
the spirit of religion is there and the genius 
of the painter is there, shining out through 
the veil which four hundred years have 
drawn across its face. Tenderly men copy 
it and reproduce it. Only a short while 
ago there was placed in First Independent 
Christ’s Church, here in Baltimore, a glass 
mosaic of much beauty which draws its 
motive from it. That painting of Leon¬ 
ardo da Vinci is thus a living influence 
today in art and religion. 

The decoration which Edwin H. Blash- 
field has given us here touches a high 
theme in the world of politics. How many 
leaders, inspired by enlightened patriotism 
at the beginning of their career, have marred 
their work by proving incapable of resist¬ 
ing the temptations of power ! And how 
different our destiny, and that of many 
other lands whose course has been in¬ 
fluenced by our own, had Washington 
proved equally weak ! Wendell Phillips 
says of him: “There were scores of men 
a hundred years ago who had more intel¬ 
lect than Washington. He outlives and 
overrides them all by the influence of his 
character.” 

The act which this painting portrays il¬ 
lustrates pre-eminently this moral strength 


of the man. It was the crowning act of 
devotion to the cause that owed so much 
to him. The event occurred on Decem¬ 
ber 23rd, 1783. Washington had asked 
Congress, in session at Annapolis, whether 
it desired him to tender his resignation in 
writing or in person. Congress expressed 
a preference for the latter course. The 
committee of arrangements for the day was 
composed of Jefferson of Virginia, Gerry 
of Massachusetts and McHenry of Mary¬ 
land. State and Government officials 
thronged the House, and many ladies were 
present. Members remained in their seats 
with hats on, after the fashion of the 
mother country; others stood uncovered. 
The tall figure of Washington wore its 
usual air of dignity and composure as he 
delivered the short address conveying his 
resignation as Commander-in-Chief of the 
army. Mifflin, the President of Congress, 
replied, and the ceremony was at an end. 

This simple but significant event bears 
out the observation that “character is cen¬ 
trality, the impossibility of being displaced 
or overset.” We know that a discontented 
army was anxious to set Washington upon 
a throne. In the light of this knowledge, 
we can appreciate the nobility of soul here 
displayed and the consequences with which 




the step was fraught. Such an act on the 
part of such a man has had, and will con¬ 
tinue to have, a profound influence 
throughout our history, and the painting 
before us, which interprets it so beautifully, 
will add measurably to the knowledge of 
the deed among men. 

Emerson, after his fashion of extreme 
statement, but with his customary plunge 
for a fundamental truth, exclaims, “A ray 
of beauty outvalues all the utilities of the 
world.” 

But painting has an eloquence equally 
with the written page. It may stand for 
more than beauty alone. This representa¬ 
tion of one of the most notable events in 
our history, probably the most memorable 
single act of our foremost man, will help 
inculcate loftier ideals. In Washington we 
find a man who was actually governed by 
the principles of conduct by which most 
of us either aim to be governed or feel that 
we ought to be governed. Right action is 
far-reaching in its influence. A striking 
deed, even on the part of the humblest, 
which bears the stamp of true manhood 
appeals to us in a singular way and gives 
us a peculiar pleasure. How much greater 
its influence when it comes from such a 
figure as Washington! The essayist al- 


16 


ready quoted asks: “Is there any religion 
but this, to know that, wherever in the 
wide desert of being the holy sentiment 
we cherish has opened into a flower, it 
blooms for me? If none sees it, I see it; 
I am aware, if I alone, of the greatness of 
the fact.” 

We will come to realize, if we do not 
now realize, that Blashfield has pictured 
this great event in a great way. He has 
preferred to touch it with allegory rather 
than transcribe the actual scene. The 
decoration is admittedly one of the best 
productions of this serious artist, and the 
Baltimore courthouse will be known to an 
additional number of men as the home of 
Blashfield’s Washington. 

It is becoming at this point to dwell 
briefly on the personality of the man who 
has given us this painting. 

Edwin Howland Blashfield was born in 
the last days of 1848 (December 15), in 
the City of New York. He attended the 
Boston Latin School, and gave up going 
to Harvard in order to have more time 
abroad for the study of art. In May, 1867, 
he went to Paris and became a pupil of 
Bonnat. Some twenty years were passed 
on the other side of the water, mostly in 
Paris and Italy, two visits being paid to 


7 


Egypt and one to Greece. His most im¬ 
portant paintings are: 

Dome of Library of Congress— u The Evolu¬ 
tion of Civilization.” It will be interesting to 
note what the beautiful figures in this decora¬ 
tion stand for: Egypt represents earliest written 
records; India, religion; Greece, philosophy; 
Rome, administration; Islam, physics; Middle 
Ages, modern languages; Italy, the fine arts; 
Germany, printing; Spain, discovery; England, 
literature; America, science. 

Lantern Crown—Figures representing “The 
Human Understanding Looking Upward from 
Finite to Infinite Progress.” 

Panel, the Court of Appeals, New York— 
“The Power of the Law.” 

Lunette, Bank of Pittsburg—“Pittsburg Offer¬ 
ing Her Steel and Iron to the Commerce of the 
World.” 

Panel, Lawyers’ Club,New York—“Justice.” 

Boardroom, Newark—“Foresight and Moder¬ 
ation, Thrift and Industry Lead the People to 
Security.” 

In co-operation with his wife he has 
written two volumes on Italian cities and 
magazine articles. In his opinion, the 
most exacting piece of work he ever did 
was the editing and annotating (with Mrs. 
Blashfield and A. A. Hopkins) of seventy 
lives of Italian painters from Vasari. This 


18 


took three of them three years and Blash- 
field is not anxious to undertake anything 
of the kind again. 

As his modesty has led him to absent 
himself from this ceremony we are free to 
dwell upon the fine sensibilities and high 
ideals that reveal themselves in personal 
intercourse with him. He has all the 
spirit of devotion to his calling which marks 
the true artist. His first proposition was 
to make simply a central panel, but he 
appreciated our desire to have the initial 
decorations of the courthouse important, 
and speedily consented to this more am¬ 
bitious undertaking without additional 
remuneration. 

It is with considerable satisfaction that 
the committee, Mr. Mayor, turns over to 
you this second of the decorations which 
it was charged with the duty of procuring. 

Turner’s representation of Calvert’s 
Treaty With the Indians in the lobby of 
the criminal court is eminently successful. 
His generous fellow artist, who is himself an 
art critic of acknowledged standing, writes 
concerning it: “I want to congratulate you 
on the admirable way in which Turner’s 
decoration fits and suits its place in the 
courthouse. It goes like a ball in a pocket. 
The color looks rich and absolutely suited 


l 9 


to its surroundings, while the whole deco¬ 
ration is just upon the right plane.” 

If now we approve of what has been 
done, let us go on, gentlemen, until we 
have provided our courthouse with the 
best that brush and chisel can produce 
and have made it one of the notable build¬ 
ings of the world. Much smaller and 
poorer communities than our own have 
done much greater things, and what is pro¬ 
jected is quite within our reach. There is 
an awakening in the field of art in America 
and American talent can well be drawn 
upon liberally for this purpose; but if we 
set out to produce something notable, no 
narrow spirit of patronizing home talent 
must be allowed to hamper us. In the 
courthouse, as in the city at large, when¬ 
ever a work of art is projected, the sole 
aim should be to get, not the best that 
America can supply, but the best that the 
world can supply. If that spirit prevails, 
we shall achieve something memorable, 
and the presence of great creations of art 
among us will do more eventually to stimu¬ 
late local production along right lines than 
any provincialism practiced now, or in the 
future, could do. 

Such things as the decoration before 
you lend dignity to every one of us as 


20 


citizens. Furthermore, if we succeed in 
making our courthouse what the Munici¬ 
pal Art Society hopes to make it—a 
treasure-house of art—it will not only at¬ 
tract to Baltimore many visitors, the bene¬ 
fits of whose presence must be manifest, 
but it will promote good citizenship by 
increasing civic pride. 

Our progenitors were in many ways 
pluckier men than we. When we see the 
buildings erected in the early days, canals, 
railways and roads constructed, and wars 
undertaken, and compare their resources 
with our own, this truth is borne in upon 
us. As our communities grow larger, we 
lose touch with each other, and lose the 
stimulus that comes from the conscious¬ 
ness of a common interest. The added 
wealth of society today presents, not added 
possibilities, but multiplied possibilities 
because of the surplus. Were we in Balti¬ 
more correspondingly as public-spirited 
and as enterprising as the men who built 
the Washington Monument, and con¬ 
structed the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, 
and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, the 
Baltimore of today would be as handsome 
as Edinburgh, and, as a mart, as important 
as New York. The foresight of the states¬ 
men who constructed the Erie Canal con- 


21 


tributed much toward establishing the 
supremacy of New York on the Atlantic 
seaboard. Situation is, of course, an im¬ 
portant factor, but primarily it is men, and 
not things, which determine what a place 
shall be. 


22 


Hetter of 


Ebwart* ibowlanC Blasbffelb 


Describing tbe Decoration 


















« 

















































The following letter was read by Judge 
Henry D. Harlan : 

New York, January 5th, 1903. 
To the President of the 

Municipal Art Society of Baltimore . 

Dear Sir:—I should like to thank the 
Baltimoreans through you for giving me 
so sympathetic a commission as to place, 
since a clear vertical wall space of thirty- 
five feet by twelve offers an unusual oppor¬ 
tunity. I am also greatly obliged to the 
committee on selection of subject for hav¬ 
ing chosen one which lent itself so well to 
representation. In regard to my treatment 
of the subject, may I say that I have very 
gladly availed myself of the committee’s 
permission to treat it symbolically rather 
than historically? The first duty of a 
mural painter is to look after the artistic 
presentation of his subject. Its literary or 
story-telling side comes distinctly after¬ 
wards, although immediately . He must 
first see to it that his picture is a real deco¬ 
ration, that is to say, good in the pattern 
of its lines and masses and colors, and then 
he may think about his story. 

That is why the semi-symbolical, semi- 
historical treatment is more grateful to the 


25 


artist than the wholly historical; the former 
is more suited to the exigencies of deco¬ 
ration. 

In the present case Washington is sup¬ 
posed to be laying his commission as 
General-in-Chief at the feet of an enthroned 
figure of Columbia, bearing sword and cui¬ 
rass, and wearing the Phyrgian bonnet (the 
liberty-cap). Opposite Washington, 
dressed in the colors of the State, is a 
female figure representing the Common¬ 
wealth of Maryland. Behind are War 
sheathing her sword and Resistance to 
Oppression breaking a rod. Seated below 
on the step is a figure of History. Behind 
Washington, as following naturally upon 
the proclamation of peace, are Prosperity, 
with the horn of plenty, and Commerce, 
bearing the caduceus. In the left panel 
are officers of artillery, infantry and cavalry, 
and troops presenting arms. In the right 
panel are a magistrate, an officer of the 
allied French forces, and various officers 
of the Continental Army. In both panels 
the corners are closed and supported by 
figures of women and children. 

In returning to the fact that the treat¬ 
ment is symbolical, not historical, it is 
hardly necessary to say that Columbia and 
the Goddess of War, Prosperity, Com- 


26 


merce and the rest were not present at the 
ceremony, but were (with the sanction of 
the committee on subject) invited to appear 
because they were more decorative than 
would have been a row of men seated side 
by side or behind their desks. 

To repeat, in a few words, the decora¬ 
tive conditions have been considered first, 
but at the same time it has been my en¬ 
deavor to be clear in telling the story. 

Again thanking you and those you rep¬ 
resent, I am, 

Yours very sincerely, 

Edwin Howland Blashfield. 


27 





IResponse of 


ibonorable TCbomas <B. Usages 


/ifcaEor of .IBaltlmore 



































JT affords me pleasure, as Mayor of 
Baltimore, to receive this work of art, 
representing an historical fact which oc¬ 
curred nearly one hundred and twenty 
years ago in the room of a building which 
still stands on the soil of Maryland. 

There could be no more pleasing and 
profitable method than this of presenting 
to the human mind and heart one of the 
many important historical facts which oc¬ 
curred in a memorable epoch of this grand 
old commonwealth. 

The fact that Maryland has preserved 
and now owns the building in a room of 
which, on December 23rd, 1783, General 
George Washington, fresh from his vic¬ 
tories, the treaty of peace not yet signed, 
surrendered his commission to the Conti¬ 
nental Congress, is a fact of which all 
Marylanders may well be proud. And 
now to have that event presented in a 
beautiful and artistic mural painting, adds 
pleasure to our pride. 

There could be no subject more suited 
to a legitimate exercise of the highest art 
than Washington surrendering his com¬ 
mission. George Washington, coming 
from the field of victory, where under his 
leadership, with dictatorial power conferred 


3 1 


in this city, he was the principal agency in 
bringing into existence a new nation, arrives 
at Annapolis to surrender this power to 
the Congress which conferred it. The 
following day he writes to Governor Cur¬ 
tain, “I hope to spend the remainder of 
my days in cultivating the affection of 
good men and the practice of domestic 
virtues.” Can any one doubt that this 
event is a subject worthy of the display of 
the highest art? 

Reflection upon such a hero, in connec¬ 
tion with such an event, should readily 
inspire the artist to conceive a painting of 
the first order, a painting which would tell 
this thrilling story with effect, the story of 
the final act in the military career of him 
who was “ first in war, first in peace and 
first in the hearts of his countrymen.” 

We have all that could be wished in 
yonder beautiful mural painting. It 
gives in appropriate grouping of figures, 
with pleasing colors, lights and shades, this 
important historical event as a mural deco¬ 
ration, to be looked upon by the present 
generation, as well as by generations to 
come, as long as stand the walls of this 
magnificent temple of justice. 

This handsome painting but makes us 
want more of Maryland’s early history 


3 2 


displayed on these walls. And more we 
must have. That great event, the procla¬ 
mation of religious liberty, as well as other 
of the many important events which have 
occurred in the history of Maryland should 
be represented in appropriate allegorical 
paintings to be placed upon these walls. 

I shall be glad always to co-operate with 
my fellow citizens, especially with the 
Municipal Art Society, in the attainment 
of this much desired end. 

In receiving this painting for the people 
of Baltimore, permit me to thank the artist, 
the Municipal Art Society and the Court¬ 
house Commission for their valuable ser¬ 
vice to Baltimore in accomplishing the 
ornamentation of the walls of this building 
by such a painting. As the people of our 
city behold it and think upon the event it 
represents, their thanks will be repeated 
as long as this beautiful decoration shall 
last. 


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